Day #349: Orientalium Ecclesiarum 7-8

Article 7 gives us a clear definition of exactly what an Eastern Rite Patriarch is:

By the name Eastern patriarch, is meant the bishop to whom belongs jurisdiction over all bishops, not excepting metropolitans, clergy and people of his own territory or rite, in accordance with canon law and without prejudice to the primacy of the Roman Pontiff.

Article 8 clarifies that all Eastern Patriarch are of equal dignity regardless of when they arose in history, but goes on to add that this does not eliminate the “legitimately established precedence of honor.”

"[The documents of Vatican II] need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition. . . . I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings. . . ."